1. Field of the Invention
The following disclosure generally relates to a system for cross-integration of consumer loyalty programs and methods thereof. More particularly, the following relates to a system for cross-integrating consumer data from separate consumer loyalty programs to create a consumer record and methods thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Incentive award or reward programs have been developed in a variety of industries to promote customer loyalty. Generally, such programs reward customers for repeat business with the same merchant or service provider by accumulating reward points, which can then be redeemed in a plurality of ways, for example, a customer could exchange the reward points for additional goods and services that may be selected from an approved list or redemption catalog. The reward points are usually calculated using a predetermined formula or ratio that relates a customer's purchase volume (i.e., in terms of money value or some other volume parameter) to a certain number of reward points. For example, reward points may be issued on a one-to-one basis with each dollar a customer spends on particular goods and services.
Well known examples of such loyalty programs include “frequent flyer” programs and credit card loyalty programs. An airline typically offers some number of points or airline miles to each consumer that is correlated with the distance traveled. At certain levels or tiers, the points may be redeemed by the consumer for airline tickets or car rentals. Other incentive programs are designed to induce usage of particular financial institutions, such as credit cards or debit cards, by accumulating points based upon the volume of purchases made using that particular financial institution. These points may then be redeemed for selected goods or services provided by the financial institution. Alternatively, a dollar credit amount may also be accumulated through the point system, which may then be applied to a credit or debit balance.
While these separate loyalty programs exist within each merchant, retailer, or the like, no existing centralized or master loyalty program has the ability to interact and exchange information with one another to the ultimate accretive data benefit of all loyalty programs. Crucial consumer information, such as demographic data and shopping habits and usage, are monitored and stored in a loyalty program's database. It would be beneficial for loyalty programs to share this consumer information with one another. Loyalty programs would then likely receive increased loyalty program engagement, new member inquiries, advanced internal reporting, unprecedented access to coalition data based on participation level, and optional access to target specific consumers with specific rewards at specific times with cross-correlated, all-level, data.
As such, there is a need in the industry for a system for cross-integrating consumer data, either in whole or in-part, from separate consumer loyalty programs to create a central consumer loyalty record that pollinates that accumulated data in each individual loyalty program and methods thereof.